Daybreaker’s Morning Rave Returns to Brooklyn

Early birds, do not be alarmed if you’ve recently seen hoards of neon-clad people lined up outside a swanky club before 7am. These folks are not lost, intoxicated, or in cahoots with the “belligerent bruncher.” Instead, it’s quite likely they’re gearing up for an early morning dance party coordinated by Daybreaker, which returns to Williamsburg’s Verboten Sunday for a special weekend edition of their pre-work day raves.

At Daybreaker, house music blares, attendees walk up to bartenders slinging cold-pressed juices, and the timid ones loiter next to poets tapping out haikus on typewriters. The atmosphere is more than a little strange, but these parties aren’t just some sort of substitute for late-night club hopping. According to Daybreaker’s founders, Matthew Brimer and Radha Agrawal, they’re intended to create a “community where entrepreneurs can be creative”.

From the looks of things, it seems this community is steadily expanding. Beginning their run this past December, Daybreaker’s events take place three times a month at various venues around NYC, but now, there’s even a brand-new San Francisco contingent of their parties. Hunter Vurbeff, one of the group’s organizers, commented to Brooklyn Magazine about the state of Daybreaker’s expansion: “we were worried the parties would lose their initial magic”, he said. But, Vurbeff expressed that the growth has been, all in all, positive.

The team behind Daybreaker is centered around New York’s tech industry. Judging from the dance floor chatter alone, the tech presence at the events is indeed strong—a fact that could potentially conjure cartoonish ideas of hyper-productive types trying to efficiently mix social activity with a morning workout.

Without question, skeptics could laugh at the peculiar atmosphere of these events and the tech stereotype they perpetuate, but there’s something so earnest about the event that could prove to be a bit disarming to the doubters out there.

Think weaving in and out of frenetic ravers and break-dancers is something you care to do before your morning coffee? Head to Sunday’s event at Verboten kicking off at 10am. Be yourself, but standing awkwardly next to dudes writing haikus is not recommended.